A healthy lifestyle involves adopting many different healthy habits: eating a healthy diet, doing physical activity, using natural cleaning and cosmetic products, practicing relaxation, etc.
However, the practices you adopt to maintain a healthy lifestyle and body can be risky if you do them without thinking, for the sake of a clear conscience or for fear of health problems. For example, doing physical activity without tuning into your body can lead to injury, which will not end up doing you any good, even if your initial intention was to get in shape. Instead, you can better promote your own sense of well-being by tuning into your body. This means experiencing your body in the world and being aware of how your body feels, particularly in relation to the outside world. In fact, much of our cognition may stem from, and even depend on, bodily information, which can play a functional role in integrating knowledge about the world. For example, did you know that the emotions you feel originate from physical sensations (such as feeling like your stomach is in knots, indicating stress, or feeling your chest expand, indicating happiness)?
What’s more, with our different lifestyles and bodily needs, there is no single lifestyle habit that benefits everyone in the same way or that benefits the same person at different moments in their life. One way to adopt a lifestyle that’s right for you is to be aware of the moments when you feel the best—or the worst—and try to explore with curiosity which habits are connected to these states of mind. This takes time and requires you to respect yourself and your body, but it’s very much worth it in the end! To conclude, your body is the vehicle that guides you through your entire life, so not only is it a good idea to maintain it for health reasons but doing so will also make it more enjoyable for you to live in and listen to your body.
*Photo by: Ariane Vermeersh